Modi govt to pursue 'economically interlinked' South Asia
The Narendra Modi-led new Indian government will "urgently pursue" an economic reform agenda to revive a flagging economy and work with neighbouring countries to build a peaceful and economically interlinked neighbourhood for collective prosperity of South Asia, President Pranab Mukherjee said today.
Addressing the customary annual joint session of the two House of parliament, Mukherjee told the lawmakers elected in Bharatiya Janata Party’s landslide victory last month that the government also promised to ensure uninterrupted supplies of power by the year 2022.
Mukherjee said the new government was “committed to making all minorities equal partners in India’s progress. And the government will especially strengthen measures to spread modern and technical education among minority communities and a National Madarsa Modernisation Programme will be initiated”.
“It is unfortunate that even after several decades of independence, sections of minority communities continue to suffer from poverty as benefits of government schemes do not reach them”, he said.
President Mukherjee said India's economy faced "extremely difficult" times and that inflation was "unacceptably" high.
The speech also included a series of ambitious policy goals that had been laid out in the election manifesto of BJP, including the creation of 100 new cities and a revamp of the largely British-built railway network.
"The country is passing through an extremely difficult phase on the economic front. Putting the economy back on track is paramount for my government", he said.
"My government will strive to get India on a high growth path, reign in inflation, restart the investment cycle....(and) restore investor confidence," he said.
India's economy has been growing at below five percent for the past two years, way below the level needed to lift millions of people out of poverty, while inflation is currently running close to nine percent.
BJP, which defeated centre-left Congress party in marathon polls held in April and May, had made reviving the economy the main platform of its campaign as well as promising to clean up government.
In the speech, the president said that "my government ... will be predictable, transparent and fair" and "was committed to providing a clean and efficient administration focused on delivery".
The government would "make every effort" to fulfill its pre-election promise to bring in a new general sales tax and would also "embark on nationalisation and simplification of the tax regime" to make it less "adversarial", Mukherjee said.
Referring to foreign policy of the new government, Mukherjee said the “government sent a unique and bold signal to the South Asian region and the world by inviting for the first time in independent India, leaders of all South Asian neighbours to the swearing-in ceremony of Modi as PM and his new Council of Ministers on May 26.
“We are grateful to them for accepting the invitation at such a short notice. Their participation, as also the gracious presence of the prime minister of Mauritius; not only added sheen to the ceremony, but also represented a celebration of democracy in the region and convergence of our shared hopes and aspirations”, he said adding this shows my government’s commitment and determination to work towards building a peaceful, stable and economically inter-linked neighbourhood which is essential for the collective development and prosperity of the South Asian Region.
He said the new Indian government “will further work together with South Asian leaders to revitalise Saarc as an effective instrument for regional cooperation and as a united voice on global issues.”
At the same time, he said, “We will never shy away from raising issues of concern to us at a bilateral level. We emphasise that the future of shared prosperity can only be built on the foundation of stability in the region, which requires sensitivity to security concerns and an end to export of terrorism to neighbours.
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